Polymeric ionic liquid as a dynamic coating additive for separation of basic proteins by capillary electrophoresis

A simple and economical capillary electrophoresis method has been developed for the analysis of four model basic proteins by employing a polymeric ionic liquid (PIL), poly(1-vinyl-3-butylimidazolium) bromide, as the dynamic coating additive. When a small amount of PIL was present in the background electrolyte, a cationic coating on the inner surface of fused-silica capillary was established. These PIL modified capillaries not only generated a stable reversed electroosmotic flow, but also effectively eliminated the wall adsorption of proteins. Several important parameters such as the PIL concentration in the background electrolyte, pH values and concentrations of the background electrolyte were optimized to improve the separation of basic proteins. Consequently, under the optimum conditions, a satisfied separation of basic proteins with peak efficiencies ranging from 247,000 to 540,000 (plates m⁻¹) had been accomplished within 11 min. The run-to-run RSDs (n = 3) of the migration times for the four basic proteins were all less than 0.37%.     

Polymeric ionic liquid as a background electrolyte modifier enhancing the separation of inorganic anions by capillary electrophoresis

A novel and easy method for the separation of inorganic anions by capillary electrophoresis using a polymeric ionic liquid (PIL), poly(1-vinyl-3-butylimidazolium bromide) as a background electrolyte modifier has been developed. The PIL has been proved to generate a reversed electroosmotic flow which reduces the analysis time and improves the separation significantly. Effects of the PIL concentration and buffer composition (pH and concentration) were evaluated on basis of the resolution and efficiency of the sample. Under optimum conditions, good separation of six model inorganic anions was achieved with high efficiency and excellent reproducibility within 3 min. The results obtained indicate that the combination of reversed EOF and the association between the analytes and the PIL on the capillary wall or BGE play a prominent role in the separation of anions. Therefore, the PIL presents a useful alternative for the BGE modifier in the study of inorganic anions by CE.     

Effect of coating electrolytes on two-tailed surfactant bilayer coatings in capillary electrophoresis

Surfactants such as dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB) form semi-permanent coatings that effectively prevent adsorption of cationic proteins onto the fused silica capillary in capillary electrophoresis (CE). The bilayer coating is generated by flushing the capillary with a 0.1 mM surfactant solution. However, formation of the bilayer is strongly dependent on the coating electrolyte. The effect of counter-ions, electrolyte concentrations and buffer co-ions were monitored based on: the separation of basic model proteins; the adsorption kinetics of DODA⁺ onto fused silica; and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine vesicle size. Low concentrations (≤10.0 mM) and/or weakly associating buffers such as phosphate (pH 3.0), acetate (pH 4.0) and chloride should be used for DODAB coating solutions. Dissolving the surfactant in strongly associating electrolyte, such as phosphate at pH 7.0, results in poor coating of the capillary surface. Effective cationic bilayer coatings are formed if the buffer conditions favor formation of vesicles with diameters < 300 nm. Monitoring turbidity at 400 nm provides a convenient means of verifying vesicle diameter variation of <5 nm; that is, that the coating solution is effective.     

Methyl chitosan coating for glycoform analysis of glycoproteins by capillary electrophoresis

CE is a promising technique for the analysis of glycosylated proteins, especially at the intact level. In the present study, the utility of CE for the separation of protein glycoforms is developed by using methyl chitosan as capillary coating. Methyl chitosan, in contrast to the polymers commonly used for coating, bears different types of amine groups, allowing for tunable charge states for various applications. The addition of methyl chitosan in background electrolyte can modulate the EOF and improve the separation performance. The methyl chitosan-coated capillary provided good separation of acidic or basic glycosylated proteins. Five ribonuclease B glycoforms were resolved by CE in less than 18 min, and the profile was essentially in agreement with that obtained by MALDI-TOF MS. The recombinant human erythropoietin glycoforms were well separated within 9 min. The developed method shows a great potential in protein glycoform analysis.     

Fast and easy coating for capillary electrophoresis based on a physically adsorbed cationic copolymer

In this work, a new copolymer synthesized in our laboratory is used as physically adsorbed coating for capillary electrophoresis (CE). The copolymer is composed of ethylpyrrolidine methacrylate (EPyM) and methylmethacrylate (MMA). The capillary coating is easily obtained by simply flushing into the tubing an EPyM/MMA solution. It is demonstrated that the composition of the EPyM/MMA copolymer together with the selection of the background electrolyte (BGE) and pH allow tailoring the direction and magnitude of the electroosmotic flow (EOF) in CE. It is also shown that the EOF obtained for the EPyM/MMA-coated capillaries was reproducible in all cases independently on pH or polymer composition. Thus, RSD values lower than 1.9% (n=5) for the same capillary and day were obtained for the migration time, while the repeatability interdays (n=5) was observed to provide RSD values lower than 0.5%. The stability of the coating procedure was also tested between capillaries (n=3) obtaining RSD values lower than 0.6%. It is demonstrated with several examples that the use of EPyM/MMA coatings in CE can drastically reduce the analysis time and/or to improve the resolution of the separations. It is shown that EPyM/MMA-coated capillaries allow the separation of basic proteins by reducing their adsorption onto the capillary wall. Also, EPyM/MMA-coated capillaries provide a faster separation of samples containing simultaneously positive and negative analytes. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the use of EPyM/MMA-coated capillaries can incorporate an additional chromatographic-like interaction with nucleosides that highly improves the separation of this group of solutes.     

Brush-like copolymer as a physically adsorbed coating for protein separation by capillary electrophoresis

A brush-like copolymer consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (PEGMA-DMA) was synthesized and used as a novel static physically adsorbed coating for protein separation by capillary electrophoresis for the first time, in order to stabilize electroosmotic flow (EOF) and suppress adsorption of proteins onto the capillary wall. Very stable and low EOF was obtained in PEGMA-DMA-coated capillary at pH 2.2-7.8. The effects of molar ratio of PEGMA to DMA, copolymer molecular mass, and pH on the separation of basic proteins were discussed. A comparative study of bare capillary with PEGMA-DMA-coated capillary for protein separation was also performed. The basic proteins could be well separated in PEGMA-DMA-coated capillary over the investigated pH range of 2.8-6.8 with good repeatability and high separation efficiency because the copolymer coating combines good protein-resistant property of PEG side chains with excellent coating ability of PDMA-contained backbone. Finally, the coating was successfully applied to the fast separation of other protein samples, such as protein mixture and egg white, which reveals that it is a potential coating for further proteomics analysis.     

Electroosmotic flow controllable coating on a capillary surface by a sol-gel process for capillary electrophoresis

A simple coating procedure employing a sol-gel process to modify the inner surface of a bare fused-silica capillary with a positively charged quaternary ammonium group is established. Scanning electron microscopic studies reveal that a smooth coating with 1 to approximately 2 microm thickness can be obtained at optimized coating conditions. With 40 mM citrate as a running electrolyte, the plot of electroosmotic flow (EOF) versus pH shows a unique three-stage EOF pattern from negative to zero and then to positive over a pH range of 2.5 to 7.0. At pH above 5.5, the direction of the EOF is from the anode to the cathode, as is the case in a bare fused-silica capillary, and the electroosmotic mobility increases as the pH increases. However, the direction of the EOF is reversed at pH below 4.0. Over the pH range of 4.0 to 5.5, zero electroosmotic mobility is obtained. Such a three-stage EOF pattern has been used to separate six aromatic acids under suppressed EOF and to separate nitrate and nitrite with the anions migrating in the same direction as the EOF. The positively charged quaternary ammonium group on the coating was also utilized to minimize the adsorption problem during the separation of five basic drugs under suppressed EOF and during the separation of four basic proteins with the cations migrate in the opposite direction as the EOF. Also, the stability and reproducibility of this column are good.     

Graft copolymer composed of cationic backbone and bottle brush-like side chains as a physically adsorbed coating for protein separation by capillary electrophoresis

To stabilize electroosmotic flow (EOF) and suppress protein adsorption onto the silica capillary inner wall, a cationic hydroxyethylcellulose-graft-poly (poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (cat-HEC-g-PPEGMA) graft copolymer composed of cationic backbone and bottle brush-like side chains was synthesized for the first time and used as a novel physically adsorbed coating for protein separation by capillary electrophoresis. Reversed (anodal) and very stable EOF was obtained in cat-HEC-g-PPEGMA-coated capillary at pH 2.2-7.8. The effects of degree of cationization, PEGMA grafting ratio, PEGMA molecular mass, and buffer pH on the separation of basic proteins were investigated. A systematic comparative study of protein separation in bare and HEC-coated capillaries and in cat-HEC-g-PPEGMA-coated capillary was also performed. The basic proteins can be well separated in cat-HEC-g-PPEGMA-coated capillary over the pH range of 2.8-6.8 with good repeatability and high separation efficiency, because the coating combines good protein-resistant property of bottle brush-like PPEGMA side chains with excellent coating ability of cat-HEC backbone. Besides its success in separation of basic proteins, the cat-HEC-g-PPEGMA coating was also superior in the fast separation of other protein samples, such as protein mixture, egg white, and saliva, which indicates that it is a promising coating for further proteomics analysis.     

Preparation and evaluation of stable coating for capillary electrophoresis using coupled chitosan as coated modifier

A coated capillary modified with a coupled chitosan (COCH) was developed by using a simple and fast (60 min) process that could be easily automated in capillary electrophoresis instrument. The COCH coating was achieved by first attaching chitosan to the capillary inner wall, and then coupling with glutaraldehyde, and rinsing chitosan again to react with glutaraldehyde. The COCH coating was stable and showed amphoteric character over the pH range of 1.8-12.0. When the pH value was lower than 4.5, the capillary surface possessed positive charges, which caused a reversal in the direction of the electroosmotic flow (EOF). The normal EOF direction could be obtained when the pH value was higher than 4.5. The COCH coating showed strong stability against 0.1 mol/L HCl, 0.1 mol/L NaOH and other solvents compared with conventional chitosan coating. The relative standard deviation of the run-to-run, day-to-day and capillary-to-capillary coating was all below 2% for the determination of EOF. The COCH-modified capillary was applied to acidic and basic proteins analyses and high efficiency could be attained. The comparison between unmodified capillary, chitosan-modified and COCH-modified capillary for the separation of real sample, extract from Elaphglossum yoshinagae with water, was also studied. Better results could be obtained on COCH-modified capillary than the other two capillaries.     

The coating of smart pH‐responsive polyelectrolyte brushes in capillary and its application in CE

A novel pH‐responsive coating technique was developed and applied to CE successfully in this paper. The coating was formed by bonding mixed opposite charge poly(acrylic acid) and poly(2‐vinylpyridine) randomly onto the inner wall of a silica capillary. The coating processes were first characterized by ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy at macroscale and microscale, respectively. Measurements of EOF were implemented to confirm the coating. Direction and velocity of EOF became controllable from negative to positive, showing a perfect sigmoidal curve as the coating net charges alternated by the pH of BGE. The control of the EOF makes it possible to analyze different kinds of small molecules, peptides, and proteins successfully in the same capillary. Results showed that the stability and reproducibility for separations of fluoroquinolone standards were satisfactory for more than a hundred separations. A series of basic and acidic protein standards were separated with admirable efficiency and minimal adsorption using both polarities. The separation of tryptic BSA digest showed that the prepared capillary has immense potential in analyzing a single sample with both acidic and basic separations, which achieved the expectation in proteomics study by CE‐MS.     

DNA capillary electrophoresis using poly(vinyl alcohol). I. Inner capillary coating

Two new methods of inner capillary coating with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAL) have been investigated and evaluated by performing DNA capillary electrophoresis (CE) using PVAL as a separation medium and by measuring the electroosmotic flow (EOF) mobility. The treatment of capillaries with a silanol-group modified PVAL (PVAL-Si) has been found to give good coating effects for improving the resolution of DNA CE and for reducing the EOF. This coating must be effectively achieved by combining the adsorptive property of PVAL chains onto silica with the reaction between the silanol groups of PVAL-Si and the silica surface. The adsorption of PVAL onto silica has been observed by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) for PVAL-Si as well as for a nonmodified PVAL as a control. The coating with PVAL that links to the capillary wall surface with more hydrolytically stable bonding, -Si-C-, has been formed by performing the Grignard reaction, followed by in-capillary polymerization of vinyl acetate (VAc) and hydrolysis. This coating has been found to be effective for improving the resolution of DNA CE and for reducing the EOF.     

Carboxymethyl chitosan-coated capillary and its application in CE of proteins

A hydrophilic basic polysaccharide, carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) as a capillary coating is presented with a simple preparation procedure. The CMC-coated capillary showed a long lifetime of more than 100 runs, and had good tolerance to some organic solvents, 0.1 M HCl, 0.1 M NaOH, and 5 M urea. The run-to-run, day-to-day, and capillary-to-capillary RSDs for the CMC-coated capillary were all below 2.0% for the determination of EOF. Moreover, the coatings with different concentrations and molecular weights of CMC were also investigated. The CMC-coated capillary was successfully applied to separate basic proteins and recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO). Furthermore, several experimental parameters, such as the concentration and pH of the running buffer, temperature, and applied voltage, were optimized for the separation of rhEPO glycoforms. Comparison of an uncoated capillary with chitosan- and CMC-coated capillaries for the separation of rhEPO glycoforms was also discussed. The results demonstrated that rhEPO glycoforms can be well separated by a CMC-coated capillary within 8 min with good reproducibility and resolution. Finally, the volatile BGE HAc-NH4Ac was utilized to separate rhEPO for its further application with CE-MS, achieving a satisfactory result.     

Top-down analysis of basic proteins by microchip capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry

A system of microchip capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (microchip-CE/ESI-MS) for rapid characterization of proteins has been developed. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) enables rapid analysis of a sample present in very small quantity, such as at femtomole levels, at high resolution. Faster CE/MS analysis is expected by downsizing the normal capillary to the microchip (microchip) capillary. Although rapidity and high resolution are advantages of CE separation, electroosmotic flow (EOF) instability caused by the interaction between proteins and the microchannel surface results in low reproducibility in the analysis of basic proteins under neutral pH conditions. By coating the microchannel surface with a basic polymer, polyE-323, basic proteins, which have pI values of over 7.5, could be separated and detected by microchip-CE/MS on quadrupole (Q) and time-of-flight (TOF) hybrid instruments. By increasing the cone and collision voltages during the analysis by microchip-CE/ESI-MS of a small protein, some product ions, which contain the sequence information, could also be obtained, i.e., 'top-down' analysis of the protein could be accomplished with this microchip-CE/MS system. To our knowledge, this is the first report of 'top-down' analysis of a protein by microchip-CE/MS. Since it requires a much shorter time and a smaller sample amount for analysis than the conventional liquid chromatography (LC)/ESI-MS method, microchip-CE/MS promises to be suitable for the high-throughput characterization of proteins.     

Fluorinated ethylenepropylene copolymer as a potential capillary material in CE

In this work, a new generation UV-transparent polymer, fluorinated ethylenepropylene copolymer (FEP) exhibiting a low degree of crystallinity, extruded in dimensions similar to the most commonly used CE capillaries of approximately 80 mum id and about 360 mum od was investigated for its use as a CE capillary. FEP is transparent down to the low-UV region, and as fluorinated polymers in general are good electrical insulators and exhibit reasonable heat conductivity, it has considerable potential as a material for electrodriven analysis in capillary or microchip formats. The FEP capillary has been characterised with regard to some important aspects for its use as a CE capillary, including its profile of EOF versus pH, as well as procedures for manipulating EOF by coating the inner capillary wall with various semipermanent and dynamic layers. The FEP capillaries were tested and compared with fused-silica capillary for the separation of inorganic and small organic ions using conditions involving direct and indirect detection in the low-UV region. Finally, advantages of the use of the FEP capillary for simultaneous detection of a mixture containing nine inorganic cations and anions using indirect photometric detection with a movable light-emitting diode (LED) detector and a novel electrolyte are demonstrated.     

Poly-N-hydroxyethylacrylamide as a novel, adsorbed coating for protein separation by capillary electrophoresis.

We present the polymer poly-N-hydroxyethylacrylamide (PHEA) (polyDuramide) as a novel, hydrophilic, adsorbed capillary coating for electrophoretic protein analysis. Preparation of the PHEA coating requires a simple and fast (30 min) protocol that can be easily automated in capillary electrophoresis instruments. Over the pH range of 3-8.4, the PHEA coating is shown to reduce electroosmotic flow (EOF) by about 2 orders of magnitude compared to the bare silica capillary. In a systematic comparative study, the adsorbed PHEA coating exhibited minimal interactions with both acidic and basic proteins, providing efficient protein separations with excellent reproducibility on par with a covalent polyacrylamide coating. Hydrophobic interactions between proteins and a relatively hydrophobic poly-N,N-dimethylacrylamide (PDMA) adsorbed coating, on the other hand, adversely affected separation reproducibility and efficiency. Under both acidic and basic buffer conditions, the adsorbed PHEA coating produced an EOF suppression performance comparable to that of covalent polyacrylamide coating and superior to that of adsorbed PDMA coating. The protein separation performance in PHEA-coated capillaries was retained for 275 consecutive protein separation runs at pH 8.4, and for more than 800 runs at pH 4.4. The unique and novel combination of hydrophilicity and adsorptive coating ability of PHEA makes it a suitable wall coating for automated microscale analysis of proteins by capillary array systems.     

Electroosmotic flow changes due to interactions of background electrolyte counter-ions with polyethyleneimine coating in capillary zone electrophoresis of proteins

The properties and behavior of polyethyleneimine (PEI) covalently coated capillaries with respect to different background electrolytes used in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) are described. The coating stability and changes of inner surface charge in the capillary were followed by measurement of electroosmotic flow (EOF). Interest was focused mainly on conjugate bases of carboxylic acids as anionic background electrolyte components (acetate, citrate, malate, malonate, tartrate, and succinate). An interesting phenomenon was observed in PEI-coated capillaries: The direction (and the magnitude) of EOF depends on the composition of the background electrolyte and at a certain pH it can undergo reversible change. Ionic complex formation was suggested as a hypothesis to explain this behavior. With this knowledge, the PEI-coated capillary was used for the separation of basic proteins in the above-mentioned background electrolytes. A standard protein mixture of cytochrome c, ribonuclease A, and lysozyme at a concentration of 0.25 mg/mL each was chosen as model sample.     

Cationic starch derivatives as dynamic coating additives for protein analysis in capillary electrophoresis

Positively charged starch derivatives were used to modify the inner surface of fused-silica capillaries by addition to running buffer, which were subsequently employed in capillary electrophoresis (CE). Capillaries coated with the cationic starch derivatives were shown to generate a stable, reversed electroosmotic flow (EOF) in the investigated pH range of 3-9. The presented coating procedure was fast, based on a simple rinsing protocol where the polymer created a physically adsorbed, cationic polymer layer. Among the additives studied, a quaternary ammonium starch derivative showed a fast EOF mobility and effectively suppressed the adsorption of proteins. The intra- and inter-day reproducibility of the coating referring to the EOF mobility were satisfactory with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 0.27 and 1.67%, respectively. The coating enabled separation of some protein mixtures including basic proteins within l3 min with efficiencies up to 280,000 plates/m. In addition, this cationic starch derivative possessed a good solubility (about 100mg/mL), and it does not significantly contribute to the background adsorption in the UV region of 190-400 nm.     

Novel cationic polyelectrolyte coatings for capillary electrophoresis

The use of bare fused silica capillary in CE can sometimes be inconvenient due to undesirable effects including adsorption of sample or instability of the EOF. This can often be avoided by coating the inner surface of the capillary. In this work, we present and characterize two novel polyelectrolyte coatings (PECs) poly(2‐(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium iodide) (PMOTAI) and poly(3‐methyl‐1‐(4‐vinylbenzyl)‐imidazolium chloride) (PIL‐1) for CE. The coated capillaries were studied using a series of aqueous buffers of varying pH, ionic strength, and composition. Our results show that the investigated polyelectrolytes are usable as semi‐permanent (physically adsorbed) coatings with at least five runs stability before a short coating regeneration is necessary. Both PECs showed a considerably decreased stability at pH 11.0. The EOF was higher using Good's buffers than with sodium phosphate buffer at the same pH and ionic strength. The thickness of the PEC layers studied by quartz crystal microbalance was 0.83 and 0.52 nm for PMOTAI and PIL‐1, respectively. The hydrophobicity of the PEC layers was determined by analysis of a homologous series of alkyl benzoates and expressed as the distribution constants. Our result demonstrates that both PECs had comparable hydrophobicity, which enabled separation of compounds with log P_o/w > 2. The ability to separate cationic drugs was shown with β‐blockers, compounds often misused in doping. Both coatings were also able to separate hydrolysis products of the ionic liquid 1,5‐diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non‐5‐ene acetate at highly acidic conditions, where bare fused silica capillaries failed to accomplish the separation.     

Comparison of different capillary isoelectric focusing methods--use of "narrow pH cuts" of carrier ampholytes as original tools to improve resolution

Two capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) systems have first been optimized: one uses a bare silica capillary and 30% (v/v) of glycerol in the separation medium while the other uses a coated capillary and an aqueous background electrolyte. To perform permanent capillary coating, two neutral polymers have been compared: hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) and polyvinylalcohol (PVA). HPC coating gave best results for electroosmotic flow (EOF) limitation on a wide pH range: as compared to a bare silica capillary, it allowed to decrease EOF by 96% at pH 7.2 after acidic and basic treatments, whereas PVA coating lead only to a 76% decrease. The glycerol CIEF system was more satisfying for the separation of model proteins classically used as pI markers. Finally, the use of "narrow pH cuts" of carrier ampholytes added to commercial ampholyte mixtures allowed increasing resolution up to a factor 2.4 at a chosen pH for the separation of pI markers and milk proteins.     

New physically adsorbed polymer coating for reproducible separations of basic and acidic proteins by capillary electrophoresis

In this work, a new physically adsorbed coating for capillary electrophoresis (CE) is presented. The coating is based on a N,N-dimethylacrylamide-ethylpyrrolidine methacrylate (DMA-EPyM) copolymer synthesized in our laboratory. The capillary coating is simple and easy to obtain as only requires flushing the capillary with a polymer aqueous solution for 2 min. It is shown that by using these coated capillaries the electrostatic adsorption of a group of basic proteins onto the capillary wall is significantly reduced allowing their analysis by CE. Moreover, the DMA-EPyM coating provides reproducible separations of the basic proteins with RSD values for migration times lower than 0.75% for the same day (n = 5) and lower than 3.90% for three different days (n = 15). Interestingly, the electrical charge of the coated capillary wall can be modulated by varying the pH of the running buffer which makes possible the analysis of basic and acidic proteins in the same capillary. The usefulness of this coating is further demonstrated via the reproducible separation of whey (i.e. acidic) proteins from raw milk. The coating protocol should be compatible with both CE in microchips and CE-MS of different types of proteins.